Durgapur, Sept. 9: The National Institute of Technology (RE College earlier) here today suspended 12 students who had ransacked a bar-cum-restaurant in Durgapur town last month after they were not served liquor.

Of the 12, two belong to the final year. The rest are from second. The final-year students were suspended for two years and the second-year students for one year. All of them were told that they would not be allowed to stay in hostel even after their suspension period gets over.

The authorities also asked them to vacate the hostels and leave the campus immediately.

NIT director A.C. Ganguly said the decision to suspend the students was taken on the basis of the probe report filed by a three-member panel set up after the August 30 incident. The committee, headed by Partha Sengupta, the dean of faculty, submitted its report yesterday.

It held the 12 responsible for the violence in which about 200 students were involved.

Initially six students, who were intoxicated, went to the bar-cum-restaurant around midnight and asked the manager to serve them liquor.

When Ananda Ghosh refused to oblige, the students left the place after threatening him with dire consequences.

They returned half-an-hour later, along with about 200 other students from the college, and attacked the bar. They became more violent when policemen from the Durgapur police station led by inspector-in-charge Mrityunjoy Banerjee arrived.

Banerjee was beaten up as his force was outnumbered. Later, the inspector-in-charge of nearby Waria police station, Sudip Dasgupta, who, with some of his junior colleagues, came to rescue Banerjee, was also thrashed. A large police contingent then brought the situation under control and arrested six students. All of them are now out on bail.

BC Roy Engineering College, a private institution in the town, today suspended the entire second-year batch for allegedly ragging juniors. An official said all 360 had to be punished as they refused to listen to the authorities.